Fuze Pitstop: Your Complete Guide to Fuze

Fuze is a leading cloud communications provider and innovator in the world of collaboration. Driven by the desire to bring people and teams together worldwide, Fuze delivers a complete communication solution that combines business voice, instant messaging, collaboration and more.

As a cloud-focused and mobile company, Fuze has developed a native platform for its UCaaS and CCaaS offering. The company can provide seamless transitions between traditional phone systems and mobile devices, primarily for mid-market and large enterprise customers.

Fuze also specializes in real-time analytics and intelligence, with access to features like enhanced caller ID and increased flexibility and control. Fuze is a full UC and contact center platform, delivering all-in-one functionality to companies in search of digital transformation.

The History of Fuze

Fuze was previously known as “Thinking Phone Networks” between 2006 and 2016. Launched by Derek Yoo and Steven Kokinos, this company sold enterprise software, focusing specifically on unifying text, voice, and conferencing services through a digital platform. Thinking Phones’ brought its solution to market as hosted PBX and VoIP replacement services for the enterprise and mid-market customers in search of digital transformation.

Over the years, the company expanded its services to include video, presence, messaging, analytics, and collaboration, developed within the unified communication industry. By 2010, Thinking Phone Networks also launched one of the first ever business phone apps for the iOS store.

Today, Fuze is a UCaaS and CCaaS company, led by Brian Day (CEO). The business has a host of customers, including Associated Press, National Geographic, and many others.

Key facts:

• Launch date: 2006
• CEO: Brian Day
• Trading name: Private
• Headquarters: Boston, United States
• Website: Fuze.com
• Employees: 741 (2019)
• Revenue: Approx. $200 million (2020)

Major Moments in the Fuze Timeline

Today, Fuze is an intuitive, all-in-one solution for communications, collaboration, and the contact center. The comprehensive offering enables seamless transitions between all kinds of communications and empowers the distributed workforce.

Fuze started life as Thinking Phones Network, which took its first venture capital opportunity in 2010, with $1.2 million in equity financing from Capstone Partners. Further rounds included $16.5 million in financing during 2012, led by Bessemer Venture Partners and Advanced Technology Ventures.

In 2014, the company raised a further $56.7 million, and in 2016, it earned $112 million in private financing. In 2014, Thinking Phones began acquiring companies to develop its communication stack in the cloud. The first purchase was Whaleback Managed Services, a provider of cloud phone services for mid-sized companies. Thinking Phones also acquired Contactive in 2015, which provided enhanced insights into caller profiles.

In 2015, Thinking Phones also purchased the video and voice conferencing company, FuzeBox, originally founded as CallWave by Jeff Cavins in 1998. By 2016, Thinking Phones rebranded itself as “Fuze”, indicating that the company had moved beyond offerings based entirely on phones.

Colin Doherty took on the role of CEO of Fuze in February 2017, and Steve Kokinos moved to a position as Executive Chairman. By 2019, Fuze announced it had raised around $484.8 million in total funding. By June 2019, Fuze also launched Flex Summit, a one-day industry event bringing together experts in management, operations, HR, and technology.

Fuze UCaaS Offerings

Fuze has a cutting-edge UCaaS platform built entirely a native cloud environment. The UCaaS environment was custom-made for the enterprise, with access to all kinds of communication tools. Modern companies can unlock video conferencing, calling, instant messaging, and content sharing in the same environment.

The Fuze enterprise UC environment powers a high-quality calling experience with an innovative phone system. Secured and reliable worldwide, Fuze provides an alternative to the on-premises PBX environment. With the Fuze UCaaS system you can access enterprise-grade calling, video and content syncing within a simple user portal.

The Fuze platform offers redundancy around the globe, as well as a high-quality voice experience that enterprise companies need to connect the global workforce. Fuze currently has calling for more than 110 countries, with over 50 relationships with leading carriers. Business buyers can also access phased migration strategies with Fuze, using “BYOC”, bring your own carrier approaches.

Fuze UCaaS includes:

• Assisted and blind transfers
• Visual calling with video
• A localized experience in over 110 countries
• Software-powered calling for any operating system
• Integration with apps like Microsoft Outlook and Salesforce
• Global voice and BYOC
• Call transfer
• Call parking
• Call recording
• Call conferencing
• Network Edge connections
• Private Network hosting
• Device partnerships with leading brands
• Team messaging
• Presence and calendar integrations
• Data and API access
• AI and ML integrations
• Email and contact integrations
• Screen sharing
• Whiteboarding
• HD audio and video meetings
• Webinars and training
• Fuze Rooms

As part of the full UCaaS experience, Fuze also offers an extensive meeting software and collaboration solution. Within the cloud UCaaS platform, companies can easily accelerate a conversation from a call to a video call, or into a chat environment.

Connect groups of external partners and coworkers quickly and easily with 1:1 and group messaging that includes group notes, persistent meeting IDs, and shared content. Presence features are available to show colleagues when you’re available. You can also track your meeting activity, and calendar invites.

Fuze accelerates meeting productivity with HD audio and video conferencing that works with any device. There are one-on-one meetings and check ins, as well as options for webinars and town halls. Collaboration tools also include screen sharing, whiteboarding, content sharing and guest participation. For more professional meetings, you can even access “Fuze Rooms”, which transform any room into a meeting space.

Data and APIs also give you a deeper view of your communications platform, with messaging, meeting, and calling data. You can leverage the data in your system to fuel better AI and ML use cases, such as conversational intelligence.

Fuze CCaaS Offering

Fuze offers both UCaaS and CCaaS solutions. Customers can choose whether to purchase these tools together, or separately. The Fuze Contact Centre solution can fully integrate with the UCaaS platform for powerful call routing and management. You can also use the link between the two systems to improve agent productivity, inspire collaboration, and boost customer experiences.

For customers in need of more advanced CCaaS solutions, Fuze has also partnered with other cloud-based contact center offerings from Nice InContact and Five9. This allows for the development of highly customizable contact center systems, designed to match a variety of business requirements.

The Fuze CCaaS solution promises more empowered agents by giving your employees access to a compelling backend environment, with visibility into queues and groups in an instant. Supervisors can view queue statistics in real-time and manage agent status in the application. There’s also a range of integrations to choose from with leading tools like ServiceNow and Salesforce.

Features include:

• Agent access on one unified application
• Complete queue visibility
• Customizable agent back-end
• Queue tracking for supervisors
• Queue access via mobile
• Real-time analytics for managers
• Efficient call flow and IVR routing
• Pop-out queue metrics
• CRM integrations with leading tools
• Integrations via APIs
• Contact center analytics
• Custom reports
• Exportation for data
• Fuze user directory
• Presence integration
• Click-to-call functionality
• Dedicated intelligent routing

Fuze also provides a “Services” wrap for companies that need help taking full advantage of their new technology. The Fuze services environment can offer support with everything from technical implementations to internal sourcing and change management. With over a decade of experience in enterprise deployment, Fuze has the skills to support brands in making the most of their platform.

Access to integrations with third-party tools also means that you can build a more comprehensive single pane of glass environment with Fuze. There’s support for API access if you want to link your contact center to your own apps. Alternatively, you can access some of the native integrations already available with CRMs and scheduling tools.

Companies with advanced requirements for their UCaaS and CCaaS solutions can work with the Fuze team to build a bespoke offering. Access to various partnerships with market leaders, and API support makes the platform highly flexible.

Fuze Differentiators

Fuze is an all-in-one solution for both collaboration and UCaaS functionality, as well as CCaaS operations. For businesses looking to accelerate their performance in the cloud and unlock new levels of digital transformation, Fuze could be the perfect investment. A leading global cloud provider, Fuze offers reliability and innovation in a convenient package.

All-in-one application

An intuitive environment for all end-users and admins provides a single pane of glass for productive and efficient work. Employees can start managing queues, calling, or chatting in seconds on a range of different operating systems. Admins also have the power to add, manage, and remove users through the Fuze hub, or tap into Fuze data for insights.

Dedicated to enterprise success

Fuze focuses mainly on the mid-market and larger enterprise environments. The company knows how to support larger companies in making the transition into the cloud. You can access things like Bring Your Own Carrier integrations, and phased migrations to suit your business. There’s also a range of services available for Fuze to simplify provisioning and adoption.

Global functionality

Fuze is a global company with support for unmetered calling in more than 110 countries. Powerful partnerships with more than 50 carriers makes Fuze an excellent choice for companies growing on a global basis. You even get the added benefit of local, high-quality calling experiences from anywhere in the world, so global service can still feel local.

Award-winning customer service

Fuze puts its customers first with exceptional enablement and customer service. Recognized as a leader in customer success by Frost and Sullivan, Fuze knows how to understand the issues of its customers and create custom solutions to solve them. Fuze treats each relationship carefully, working with customers to power everything from better migrations to implementation and adoption.

Reliable at scale

More than just global, Fuze is also extremely reliable, with an intelligent cloud architecture to offer peace of mind wherever you are. The platform comes with full stack video, messaging, voice, and screen sharing, deployed with absolute redundancy around the globe. Diversity across access points and failover across global regions means users always have the strongest communication experience wherever they are.

Excellent security

The all-in-one environment from Fuze is equipped with all of the security and compliance requirements you need. The enterprise security certifications held by Fuze include everything from ISO 27001 and SOC 1 and SOC2 2, to ensure that information and customer data is always safeguarded and secure.

Innovation

As an all-in-one solution growing on the cloud, the Fuze environment is extremely adaptable and capable of constant growth. You can rest assured that your business will have access to the latest features and innovations as they arise with Fuze. The company frequently supports cutting-edge solutions and experiences and offers integration options with leading tools.

How is Fuze Placed?

Fuze is an award-winning company in numerous areas, including customer service and success. In 2020, the cloud communications provider was given an award for the Best Communication, Conferencing and Collaboration category by the SaaS awards. The SaaS awards recognize excellence in collaboration and communication tools on an annual basis.

Fuze was also recognized by Gartner in 2020 as the only “Visionary” for UCaaS. In the Magic Quadrant, the Visionary section is reserved for companies who have the most innovative completeness of vision for their category.

Fuze has also been ranked on the Forbes cloud leader list every year for the past five years. It achieved a ranking on Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 and is often recommended as one of the fastest-growing and more innovative brands in technology for North America.

Aside from winning a number of amazing awards, Fuze has also achieved various patents, such as a patent in 2019 for the company’s pioneering ability to select routes through a network. The routing solution is able to identify fault locations in a segment of the network so Fuze can identify problems within an environment before they cause issues for users. Fuze also has a patent which enables a machine learning algorithm to apply the technology of skills-based routing to internal groups of employees for collaboration and communication.